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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Going to Meet The Pioneer Woman

Yesterday morning I stopped over on Pioneer Woman's blog (as I do most mornings) and realized that Ree Drummond's book tour had finally made its way to my neck of the woods (and I say "woods" literally.) "Close" would also be a relative term as her signing of "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" would be held at a bookstore in Seattle, a two and a half hour drive from my home. I couldn't decide if I wanted to make the trip or not... I really enjoy PW's blog, have used dozens of her recipes with great success and own the cookbook but I'm not really die hard enough to drive that far for her alone.

So... instead I dragged DB across the border for an "adventure"! I tempted him with California Pizza Kitchen and a piece of pie from the Dutch Mothers in Lynden. I've learned that you can drag a man just about anywhere if there is the reward of good food on the other end (Orange Juliushot dogs will get him to the mall:)

The Dutch Mothers is a (duh) Dutch restaurant in the freakishly Dutch town of Lynden, WA (I did a post a few years back about how the abnormally neat lawns of Lyndon gives me the heeby-Jeebies...and it still does btw!) They serve up the most fabulous deep dish pies in Northern West... or at least the Northwestern region of North Western Washington...

And so after filling up on Carmel Apple pie we made the long trek south towards Lake Forest Park where PW would be making her appearance at a Third Place Books. Even though I was prepared for the crowds it was still really kind of shocking to see the number of women gathered! Young, middle age and old(er) all buzzing happily with a bright yellow cookbook or book(s) tucked under their arm. I quickly discovered that they had a system in place for the signing as to avoid huge lineups but also that it would be hours before we could expect to even begin to stand in line. And so I took my "ticket" and DB and I went out and spent an hour or so hanging out at a mall and then went in for supper and CPK (California Pizza Kitchen). DB used to live in Dallas, TX and has long complained about the acute lack of CPK's in BC (there none) and so he was thrilled to get his fix of Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza! Despite the helping of pie we had earlier in the day we still ordered a big piece of delicious Red Velvet Cake.

By 9:40pm, when we started the jaunt back up towards the bookstore, I wasn'tfeelin' too much like standing in line for an hour or two with a full belly (Sorry, PW but even spanxwouldn't have helped last night!), tired feet and a long drive ahead of us. As much as I might have liked to see the lady in person the idea of my comfy bed and two dogs waiting at home won out and so....

....to make a long story short... this is the closest I got to Ree Drummond, the (now) famous Pioneer Woman...

There were a number of people that wanted to get a snap shot of PW signing but the organizers had her tucked away in a little nook and the only space to get a picture was through this cozy wee spot...

(here you can see a nice lady knitting away while watching Ree's meet'n'greeted (behind the pillar)...

What the organizers missed.... while factoring in the family friendly-middle age female-houswives- Christians- and other good-god-fearing soul-demographic attending this event was that the first glimpse of PW you were likely to get would be while looking over this book cover....

A minor oversight... really...

*ehem*

Anyways...

Maybe one day she'll come to the Pacific Northwest on this (the North side) of the 49!

That is so funny! She lives close to me here in Oklahoma and at her hometown book signing the line was long and my friend and I did the same thing...the line was too long and we decided dessert sounded better. Sorry Ree, but dessert is more fun.